Lidsville

They recently had a special on the e-channel about Sid and Marty Croft and the wonderfully imaginative shows they made like Pufnstuff. They were very original and creative and made wonderful shows for kids and I sure remember this one. Butch Patrick, Eddie on the Munsters, plays a boy named Mark who falls into a magician's hat into a land of talking hats. Its like The Wizard Of Oz on LSD thats the best way to describe it. Charles Nelson Reilly stole the show as a wizard named Hoodoo. He was hilariously hammy. Billie Burke was also very good on this show. It was good clean kids entertainment, how much of that do you see anymore? They ought to consider making this one into a full-length feature like they did with Harry Potter. With special effects the way they are today it would be a blast! I can just picture Jim Carrey or Robin Williams as Hoodoo.

"Lidsville" is the story of Mark ("The Munsters' " Butch Patrick) who is budding magician. After seeing the magician Hoodoo (Charles Nelson Reilly), Mark sneaks backstage to see if Hoodoo has real magic or not. He touches Hoodoo's magic hat, which suddenly grows to enormous size. Looking into the hat, Mark falls inside -- and into a secret dimension called Lidsville, where everyone is a giant, talking hat.

Mark has Hoodoo's magic wand, which Hoodoo wants back or he can't continue to work his magic. But only Hoodoo knows the secret of how to get out of the hat and back to the real world.

Hoodoo, his talking vulture pal Orson, and a host of other baddies routinely try to destroy the town of Lidsville and its oversized fedoral inhabitants -- while Jimmy saves the day every time.

For kids, "Lidsville" was a great show. (The theme song, quoted above, stick in my head 35 years later!) Charles Nelson Reilly was the perfect wacky, green-faced magician with red hair. As a seven year old, I lived every week to see him fly in his gigantic, flattened top-hat with Orson. His laugh, his goofiness, and his campy evilness thrilled me. Mark seemed too goody-two-shoes to me, and the inhabitants of Lidsville were too clumsy and inanimate to really do much. Every show was really about Mark, learning cooperation and friendship in order to beat the schemes of silly Hoodoo. Probably the worst episodes had Mark almost getting out of Lidsville, because at the last second he'd be forced back into the alterna-dimension and I'd feel horrible for him. But the other shows were wonderful.

Along with "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters," "H.R. Pufnstuff" and "Super Friends," this is how I spent my childhood's Saturday mornings.

This show, like most of the Krofft brothers shows, is basically one wild experience. They claim that they never were on drugs while they were creating these shows, but I doubt that very seriously. This show basically is one long LSD trip and it basically is the same theme as the Krofft's other big creation H.R. Pufinstuff. Also, the songs that provided the musical interludes had to be some of the corniest ever written.

The third installment of the Krofft shows,"Lidsville",which premiered on ABC-TV in September of 1971 and ended its run in September of 1973 in repeated episodes. Only the first 17 episodes of the series where original episodes from the 1971-1972 season. The second season consisted of repeated episodes from the first season since the show switched times in its second season from Saturday mornings to Sunday mornings.

"Lidsville" followed past convention of other Krofft produced shows like "H.R. Pufnstuf"(1969),and "The Bugaloos"(1970),but also featured a cast of costumed characters,a single human protagonist,and a disturbingly whacked-out villain. The plot turned on a boy named Mark(played by Butch Patrick of "The Munsters" fame) who fell into a "magician's hat" after a magic show over at some amusement park(basically the opening of the show was filmed on location at Six-Flags Amusement Parks)and landed in a "world full of hats" and of course,an evil villainous magician,Whoo Doo(played by Charles Nelson Reilly in a role that made his countless appearances on "Match Game" seem sedate by comparison). "Lidsville" also featured Witchiepoo's "good" cousin,Weenie the Geenie(also played by Billie Hayes of H.R. Pufnstuf fame),locked up in the magic ring owned by Whoo Doo. It is to be said that the ring was stolen by Mark in the opening episode and subsequently became Lidsville's McGuffin. This was one of the strangest and the most bizarre children's show in the history of Saturday Mornings and for good reason. Even though it only lasted two seasons.

Even though Weenie was thoroughly incompetent and incapable of performing magic with any sort of accuracy,Whoo Doo inexplicably pursued Mark for stealing the Weenie and the ring. In the meantime,Mark tried to find his way back home and find his way back to the normal world. Though the basic H.R. Pufnstuf formula was adhered to rigorously in Lidsville,the show was distinguished by possibly one of the weirdest of the Kroffts' many weird premises and there was more to come with other shows like "Sigmund And The Sea Monsters","The Land Of The Lost","Far-Out Space Nuts",and "The Lost Saucer" to name a few. A world full of living and talking hats? What was the dimension next door? Will Mark ever get back home to the real world? Pretty far out.

Hats off (get it?) to Sid and Marty Krofft, for creating "Lidsville", where children's programming and psychedelic weirdness meld like in no other show (well, except "H. R. Pufnstuf").

The plot? Seems young boy Mark (Partick, who was Eddie Munster from "The Munsters"!) goes behind the stage of a magician's act where, finding the magician's top hat has grown big enough to look down into, he falls into it and finds a weird, strange world where almost every character is some kind of hat (pith helmet, beret, beanie, etc.) except for Weenie the Geenie (Hayes, who was also Witchie Poo on "H.R." - coincidence?) and Hoodoo (the ubiquitous Charles Nelson Reilly), a goofily evil magician trying to destroy the "dum-dums" and rule hats everywhere (I guess).

It's all good, goofy fun and, as with all of Sid and Marty's shows, bright, swirling colors went hand in hand with smart kids, dumb grown-ups and LOTS of comic relief.

Reilly made the biggest impression on me as Hoodoo. As the green-skinned magician, he got the best scenes and the funniest lines. Once, terrorizing Lidsville from inside a huge, inflatable robot-like version of himself (don't ask), he looks into the camera and chortles, "If those little dum-dums knew it was me in here, they'd die!" - I always loved that one.

The whole show was great. Long live the hats!

Ten stars for "Lidsville" - living proof that the best entertainment for kids comes right off the top of your head.